Ceramic Soul
by Lieutenant-Hawkaye
Summary: "That was a bad move, Sweetie."


River Song was content. Being freed from the library's computer by a woman who is equally smart as she is beautiful and then being able to go to bed with her was on her top ten nights list – which was extremely long for a list of ten.

She rolled over to face the blonde woman who had been staring at her neck for the past few minutes. Their eyes met and they both smiled and sighed.

"I reckon you may get a few bruises, sorry about that." Miss Quill whispered to River as she played with the ringlets of hair that were lain against her neck.

"I'll wear them with pride, however you may have to wear a turtle neck to work for a few days." They both chuckled softly, neither wanting to shatter the comfortable silence between them completely.

After a few more luxurious minutes of silence, staring and smiling, Quill sat up slowly and stretched. River just lay and watched her, she truly was a magnificent being. Even though her hair closely resembled a bird's nest, she knew her own would be far worse but the bird's nest and quill connection was preoccupying her brain enough not to care.

Quill leant over to her bedside table and retrieved her navy blue mug that had been abandoned the moment River had stepped into the room. She peered inside to check if there was any coffee left, sadly there wasn't.

"Would you like a coffee, River?" She gestured with the mug to get her point across.

"If you're offering, a tea would be lovely." Quill nodded and picked up her clothes that she had discarded with the coffee cup, however, slightly less carefully. The mug was nothing special, it was just the first thing she had used that wasn't from home therefore meaning it had slight sentimental value and quite comforting. She wouldn't admit it but it was her security blanket.

She dressed purposely and in no rush, to the delight of the other woman still snuggled under the bedsheets. She finished, gave River a kiss and padded out of the room.

The kettle was boiling away happily as Quill searched for her teabags, they have to be here somewhere. She also realised she hadn't asked River how she liked her tea so she was going to have to guess and hope for the best.

She heard the soft click of the kettle announcing it had finished boiling, but just before she could reach for the handle a violent knocking came from her front door. If this is one of those bloody kids coming to tell me the world is ending, God help them. She thought she had gotten rid of them for the night since Charlie was out with Matteusz and Ram. But no, here is one of them disturbing her night with the most brilliant woman she had even had the fortune to meet – and save, and, well, let's leave that there.

She walked to the door almost in slow motion, if they were in trouble they were just going to have to wait, she did bitter and immature quite well, or so she had been told. When she got to the door she took a deep breath and took the handle and pushed it down and pulled the door open to reveal the hysterical knocker.

It was definitely not one of the kids.

It was best described as a humanoid lizard that was pissed off and had had far too much to drink. Or as he preferred to be called, Darren.

Darren was a Silurian who had disguised himself as a human for the evening so he could take his boyfriend, who was a human, on a pub crawl. They had spent the evening drinking substantial amounts of alcohol and hanging out in some of London finest gay bars.

Everything was going fine until Darren had mentioned to Kyle – his boyfriend – that his disguise was running out of power, at which point Kyle got very upset and angry at him. Why can't you be normal, he said. This is so much hard work, he cried. I can't do this anymore, shouted and stormed out of the bar.

Darren just sat stunned for a minute and downed the last of his vodka and coke, and quietly left the bar himself. It took a few hundred yards for the fact he had just been dumped to sink in, Kyle's last words swirling around his intoxicated brain incessantly.

The farther he walked, the more angry and upset he became. He realised that this wasn't his fault, and he thought Kyle loved and supported him, obviously not.

He got to a point in his anger where he punched a wall as he passed by, he hit it so hard he broke his bracelet that was the only thing making him appear human, albeit it would have only been for a couple more minutes. A couple more minutes which may have stopped the next major plot point from happening, which may have been in his interests but we will never know.

This leads us to where we were already in the story, an angry Silurian stood on Miss Quill's doorstep because he was having a shitty night and wanted to make someone else's equally so.

It was at the moment he pulled a blaster from his belt – the fact he always had his blaster may have been another reason for Kyle leaving but he wasn't sure – Quill realised she couldn't do anything. No Charlie to protect therefore she couldn't defend herself. To put it simply: she was royally screwed. All she could do was back away and hope she didn't get killed – or get River killed. That made her heart skip a beat, not after what she went through, not again. She just had to keep him away from the stairs.

She backed slowly into the house, trying to stay calm and not make movement that's may set the Silurian off.

Honestly, Darren hadn't thought this through, he was very drunk and pissed off. He thought his best plan was to shoot at the woman a couple times, shake her up a bit then leave, no one gets hurt and he can go to bed.

So that's what he did. He shot at her, but aiming to miss, of course. The first couple of blasts were fine, she dodged with plenty of room to spare and he backed her further into the kitchen. She had her back pressed against the counter which had the mugs on she was making beverages in mere moments before when she heard a quiet footfall coming down the stairs.

Shit, River, stay away.

"Quill, I could hear gun shots, you better not be having a party without me." River called down the stairs. She rounded the base of the stairwell in no more or less than a dressing gown. She glanced around the place trying to find where the blonde had got to. When she spotted her they locked eyes, both silently saying a variation of 'this isn't good'.

"How lovely of you to join us, um-"

"Darren."

"Of course, Darren. Will you be staying long?" River was stood on the edge of the kitchen, directly in front of Quill and behind Darren, who had turned to face her, but his gun still trained on a spot behind him.

"No, I'll be leaving shortly. I'm tired, drunk and have just been dumped I would like my bed." River nodded sympathetically.

"But first I want to relieve myself of some of that anger first." He squeezed his trigger on his blaster, which was pointed directly at Quill's abdomen. She quickly dived out of the way, only to watch the blast fly past her and hit her mug.

The next few milliseconds went slower than she thought was possible. As the mug and blast made contact the mug smashed into a million tiny fragments of the night's sky, and Quill felt her heart and soul shatter with it. That was it, it was gone. Her net to fall back on destroyed by some idiot with a gun. At that moment she wished he had the alien insect in his head to kill him for what he just did.

Luckily for her, she had the next best thing. River Song.

"That was a bad move, Sweetie." She said so quietly it was barely audible. She whipped her gun out of her dressing gown pocket and, without hesitation, shot Darren in the head, which proceeded to disintegrate as his body collapsed onto the floor.

River dropped her gun immediately and ran over to Quill who was shaking, which was completely understandable under the circumstances. She enveloped her in a tight and reassuring hug, which she was given back almost as tightly.

"Hey, I'm here now. It's okay." She rested her chin on Quill's shoulder as she buried her face into hers. She wasn't crying but she was in shock so she waited a few more seconds before saying anything else.

"We can get you a new mug. I have a feeling it meant something, you pick up on those things, as you probably know yourself." She felt a slight nod on her shoulder. She squeezed her a little harder to say everything was going to be okay.

Quill's arms dropped down to her sides and River pulled away from her. She hid her face as best she could behind her short fringe and gazed vacant eyed at the woman stood across from her. Why had she been blessed with such an incredible person to have saved and be saved by? She wondered what she had done to deserve such privilege.

"Come on, let's go back upstairs. He's not going anywhere and I know you aren't going to sleep but we can just cuddle and talk, okay?" River slipped her fingers in between Quill's, and gently lead her to the stairs.


End file.
